Author: Tera

BMW invited (with organization by European M5 E39 Owners Group) 50x M5 E39’s to attend the 50 year celebration of ///Motorsport at BMW M5 E39 factory @ Dingolfing, Germany.

BMW gave a drive-through tour of the M5 factory, including a full photo of everyone on the BMW test track.

Grainy photos taken by me

Photos by Kaspars Daleckis Photography

BMW Tried painting the M5 E39 in the elusive Chrome Shadow paint to see what happens. Here are some shots of the 1 of 1 M5 E39’s. The machine is still owned by the factory.

The Chrome Shadow color on M5 E39 reminds between a mix the colors Sterling Grey with a touch of Silverstone.
The intention was probably not this settle color, but a more vibrant “popping” paint, with extreme contrast dark fall-off on surfaces pointing away, just like the Style 65 wheels have it. The most likely reason the car looks more “silver” than Chrome Shadow is that the clear coat is too thick.

The thicker the clear coat, the less the Chrome Shadow shows and this is an issue with the Chrome Shadow process, because to achieve a Chrome Shadow feel a thin clear coat is necessary, where a thin clear coat does not protect the fragile Chrome Shadow ‘silver’ dusting under the clear. Any aggressive detergent/shampoo (especially wheel cleaner) will eat through the thin clear coat.

Scroll to the bottom to see the M3 E46 Concept in Chrome Shadow. That car’s paint is a lot closer to (whatever) Chrome Shadow (people think) paint should look like.

This looks like a test to see what happens if a Chrome Shadow painted door has to be resprayed for a customer.
The result appears that BMW themselves are not able to get Chrome Shadow right. Given the complicated and extremely unreliable (different results every time) process of painting in Chrome Shadow, BMW obviously scrapped the idea that they should offer this color to customers. BMW would not get a consistent finish from car to car, but would also deal with the impossibility of re-spray and paint repairs.

Photos by Kaspars Daleckis Photography:

BMW M5 E39 in Chrome Shadow by E39 Owners Group members at Munich “Push it to the Limit” meet

Here you can see images of the M5 E39 in Chrome Shadow in Munich, in different light and shadows, to get a feel how it looks outside sunlight.

The painted door is obvious. This looks like a test to see what happens if a Chrome Shadow painted door has to be resprayed for a customer.
The result appears that BMW themselves are not able to get Chrome Shadow right. Chrome Shadow is just a color of 50 shades of gray, with little to no consensus of what it really means to have Chrome Shadow.

Below is a M3 Concept that is painted in Chrome Shadow. The wheels match the body (it appears) much better in terms of color. The vehicle is located and on display at the BMW HQ/Welt/Museum.

Kaspars Daleckis Photography traveled across Europe to attend and photograph the special event.

BMW invited (with organization by European M5 E39 Owners Group) 50x M5 E39’s to attend the 50 year celebration of ///Motorsport at BMW HQ/Museum in Munich.

50 cars arrived from all over Europe, collectively driving far north of 100,000km.
Some driving over 5000km and shipping by boat from far away lands.

This was just one day of a multi day get-together and tour.
The 50x M5 E39’s were also invited for tour at the M5 factory in Dingolfing, but that is material for another post.

Full list of invited M5 E39’s at BMW HQ/Museum Munich

Other photos of the day:

Cars & Coffee BMW Classic Munich

Nick drove in his M5 E39 into Cars n Coffee @ BMW Classic, Munich.

Got to Autobahn and realized rear tires are not properly balanced. Felt there is vibration above 200kmh. I got the Michelin PS4’s mounted some time ago, but I did not do balance check before leaving. At 90-130kmh on regular roads the vibration could not be felt.
Looks like the big-brand chain service station balanced the car to “He won’t feel it at 100kmh” style… both tires out of balance.

Worst surprise was that one wheel is slightly bent oval and not perfectly round, of course the shop where I got the wheel/tire mounted, did not even mention anything about this. This is why it is dangerous to take your car to “Pep boys” and “Autozone” or “ATA” style service shops.

In Germany, ATA and 5 other shops we visited on Friday morning in mid July said “Next time for tire balance is in August”.
This was a WTF moment… WTF is going on in Germany? .. then finally 7th stop we visited, ARC Auto & Reifen-Center GmbH came through “10 minutes” and it was super fast and super cheap. Highly thankful because they saved my day/trip!

1939 Auto Union Typ C/D V16 520hp is likely the most insane car Audi (Auto Union) has ever produced.
To have 520hp in 1939 when average decent car had ~50hp was absolutely insane.
They did not manufacture tires wide enough to hook up all that power, so it got double rear wheels.

This one-off example 1939 Auto Union Typ C/D V16 520hp was saved by Mr. Kulbergs (founder of Riga Motor Museum) of Latvia from getting destroyed by Soviet Union. Personal possession/ownership (You will own nothing and will be happy) was outlawed during Communism and there are long stories (that are best re-told by Mr. Kulbergs son Andris Kulbergs) how parts of the car were hidden in walls of buildings so the Russians would not find it.

Audi did not have an example of the car themselves. When they found out the only example is alive and in the possession of Riga Motor Museum in Latvia, Audi purchased it for an undisclosed sum and as part of the deal, produced a (near) perfect replica of the original, that is now standing at Riga Motor Museum. This “saving the Auto Union Typ C/D” part of story is omitted from the spec sheet at Audi Museum.

Photos by Kaspars Daleckis Photography:

Year got a slow start with the lock-down. 2021 auto registration only arrived at end of June, almost 4 months late.

Much needed oil change after Autobahn runs. I was worried the Liqui Molly 10w60 oil will be cooked and lost its lubricating properties, due to extended hard runs on the Autobahn and over 10,000km on the oil. Turned out the oil was looking surprisingly good for the km/miles driven and the oil filter (after careful examination) was empty of debris or metal particles.

M5 E39 ESS Supercharger pre-install Dyno & preparation

Getting the machine ready to install ESS Supercharger @Driftdarbnīca, Riga, Latvia. ESS install means first doing rod bearings, and major engine overhaul. To get understanding of before and after Supercharger results, went and Dyno’d the machine at Dyno Systems, Riga Latvia on a Superflow Dyno, showing 379HP DIN @ crank (full info on the bottom of the page).

S62 Motor build for M5 E39 Touring Wide-body ESS Supercharged

Meanwhile @ Driftdarbnīca, Sergej Ananic was busy assembling his S62 for his BMW Individual “1 of 7 Atlantis Metallic” M5 E39 Touring Wide-body ESS Supercharged. The engine was completely apart to lowest common denominators just two weeks ago, and in 15-16 days of work, Sergej with help of Maris Rungis @ Driftdarbnīca, managed to fully assemble the newly sleeved, balanced crank/pistons/rods motor, ESS Supercharge & Dyno tune.

I showed up (late as always), but at least managed to film (and catch some of the emotions) of the final assembly, first start and dyno tune.

Note that the dyno was to check AFR’s, etc., and tune, not for power output testing. That will come later once the engine has been broken after the road trip.

M5 E39 Dyno test before ESS Supercharger install

Dyno’ed the M5 E39 before supercharger install. The car has 182,000 miles or 292,000 kilometers on odometer.
ABS and DSC fuses 17 and 30 in the trunk were not pulled.. and 4th gear was used, while 5th gear is the direct gear.

The motor dyno’ed at 379hp on Superflow Dyno.

In regards to WHP, the machine dyno’d at:
318.72 SAE (USA) WHP
323.15 DIN (Euro) WHP

The video shows max power moment @ 6580RPM, the Wheel Torque @ 344.9NM which is 254.4 ft lbs.
Then taking the imperial measurement system (ft lbs) way of calculating WHP from Wheel Torque and RPM:
EngineTorqueFootLBS times RPM divided by 5252: 318.72 HP SAE
SAE HP to DIN HP = x1.0139
318.72 SAE WHP x 1.0139 = 323.15 DIN WHP

The only sensors replaced in last 150,000 miles are MAF. Everything else is original and no other performance improving mods have been done to the motor.

The oxygen sensors were reading a perfectly steady 1.0, meaning no compensation was necessary and engine/systems were working perfectly on all 5 dyno runs.

The 379hp max power were achieved at 200.5km/h @ 4th gear and on 5th dyno run, as the stock cats needed to be heated up and each consecutive run gave better readings. The ambient temp outside was 16c and inside Dyno shop about 20-22c.

The car lost ~20hp in last 182,000 miles/292,000km- down from 400hp to 379hp. 5% loss in almost 300,000km of hard driving.

Overall I’m satisfied and right in-line with what my M5 mechanic Maris Rungis @DriftDarbnica predicted (378hp, when I asked him to place the bets) before the Dyno run.

End of video shows clip where we did a €2 coin balancing test on the M5 motor to check for vibrations. Stands still and the minimal €2 sway is from the belt-fan air passing by.

Next up is crankshaft balancing, new rod bearings & chains/guides, sensors/grommets/gaskets/o-rings/et. al. replacement and refreshment before charger install. After refresh probably will have PedM5 from M5Board tune the ESS supercharger to perfect tune.

2020 events took the wind out of traveling. Stuck with the machine in a small country while all the borders are closed.
No chance of re-building the motor and installing ESS Supercharger as the lock-downs rage, suppliers and shops are closed. Spring time came and finally had a chance to do a photo-shoot of the new paint job.

Enjoying the new wheels. Made a mistake though, it was pouring rain outside the day I was to mount the wheels, brought all tires laying around, told the shop to put on the ones with good thread/best shape. Little did I know the rears they mounted were 265’s because that was the deepest threaded tires. 265’s bother me, since M5 E39 comes with 275’s.

Mandatory newly painted Style 65 wheel photo shoot:

Got the BMW M5 E39 Style 65 wheels restored in original Chrome Shadow by Ainars Valdmanis at http://valdman.is

Artist @Paulbirman Design on Instagram created some amazing art with M5 E39 as a Cyberpunk future concept.

Stood in the shop whole year. Got a new paint job, though.. still not done, more to come….

Didn’t have a chance to take decent photos after paint job in the wild this year, by the time I got the car back from paint it was late October and car went into winter storage.

That’s it. Not a whole lot of pictures this year.

We are approaching perfection and singularity at an alarming pace.

The M5 was in dire need of something to do with paint and this is the story.

8 years of wear on satin black paint

In 2011 the M5 had the matte/satin black wrap removed and was instead painted satin black with the paint “Hot Rod Flatz” by TCP Global in San Diego. The paint was a single stage polyurethane paint that withstands small scratches and such. The car was street parked for next 5 years and endured countless hours of California scorching summer sun, road trips to Salt Flats for drifting purposes, runs across the South West United States deserts, Death Valley trips, inter-continental road trip across United States and Europe, 1000’s of KM at 250km/h on Autobahn, Nurburgring, Laguna Seca, various containers it was shipped in and other boat trips, and can’t forget the Eastern European dirt roads, among many other encounters. The Hot Rod Flatz paint held up, surprisingly well, the paint full-filled its purpose of staying on the car, but any paint put through all this would have suffered severely. The beauty with a satin flat paint job is that there are no swirl marks and the Hot Rod Flatz was super easy to take care of, high pressure washing all the way, every time and looked great afterward.

@Painter for Quick Sticker Removal

Initially the intention to visit painter Ainars Valdmanis was to only remove the stickers from the car. The painter was to paint the roof of the red Volvo when he said he won’t get it done before summer solstice and instead to bring the M5 in for decal removal, because that will be faster than painting a 3.8 square meter roof of a Volvo.

Los Angeles body shop shenanigans

Suffering 2002 through 2011 from restless repeating oncoming storms of Carbon Schwarz swirl-marks, the car was painted Hot Rod Flatz in 2011 in Los Angeles. While the paint looked and held reasonably well for the years of beating it took while being #streetparked… after sticker removal it was beyond repair. With sticker removal it was revealed that the paint’s primer was sanded and prepared at various locations with 1500 to 2000 grit and by so the Hot Rod Flatz polyurethane paint had nowhere to bite and came off with the stickers at various places. Problem was that the stickers only covered a relatively small portion of the car, what else primer shenanigans is below the Hot Rod Flatz paint?

I forget the name of the shop in San Bernardino, CA where I painted the car in 2011 in Hot Rod Flatz, the owner seemed very reasonable and forward coming, but obviously years later it reveals that there was no skill in the trade. The primer was so smooth that by looking at an angle on the primer, one could see a clear reflection.

Little story why hood is little different reflection tone than rest of car:
The hood was replaced and re-painted in 2014 at Century Collision Center in Orange, CA. It took Century Collision almost two months to paint hood and bumper.
After running over car tire back in 2014, I was trying to tell Century Collision owner that the paint used is Hot Rod Flatz, but the owner showed some arrogance and told me “We know how to mix paints”. After 2 re-sprays by Century Collision, then bringing a lawyer, 1 more failed attempt I said “fuck it” and took my car out of the body shop. They still would not listen where I bought the Hot Rod Flatz single stage polyurethane paint and insisted mixing their own. That said the hood never really matched the car, but very few noticed, and those who did where mechanics/and painters examining the car at their shop, but still it bothered me that I know.
The M5, “fully repaired by Century Collision”, left the body shop first with lights pointing into the ground 5 feet ahead, then after me demanding they fix the lights so they point right, they got insurance to replace both headlights, and upon leaving the body shop the lights were tilted up about at 20 degrees from a horizontal plane, shining at tree-tops. Obviously, the paint was not matching. The Dinan splash guards for cold air intakes that were bent due to running over tire, were not replaced or removed, i was not consulted, but instead straightened with pliers best they could in 20 seconds, and various other ‘ fuck this shop ‘ type of errors. So that’s for Century Collision in Orange, California, which was recommended by M5Board, quite disappointing. I have only gotten terrible paint jobs and experience in California. Seems like no one knows how to paint anything.

Some of Details That Need Attention

Initial Plan of Quick Re-Spray

Having removed the stickers, it was clear that the car will need touch-up of areas where primer is showing through slightly, fix the dent on the fender and rear bumper crack. I then instructed the painter also to remove hood and trunk emblem. Let’s do quick re-spray of fenders, hood, trunk, rear bumper…oh yea the roof also been scratched from when car was in container from NYC to EU. Rear fenders too, and then what we got left? The front bumper? Slippery slope we got here.

Total Paint Removal/Stripping

Realizing it is not wise to re-spray the Hot Rod Flatz with new layer, when the existing Hot Rod Flatz polyurethane paint sits on a very poor primer layer, that is too smooth for the existing paint to grip on… realizing all that I went to help the painter sand the original layer off and scuff the smooth primer.
Problem with the Polyurethane paint is that the 800 grit paper turns smooth real fast even wet sanding due to the urethane catching the sand paper. I tried using a 800 grit rotation sander and the sand paper lasted 4-5 seconds before turning perfectly smooth. Same with 400 grit. Realizing that getting that polyurethane paint off will be some challenge I went for the paint remover against the painters wishes.. he was like “Oh no, just not the paint remover” but I told him “Fear not, let’s do this”.

When totally removing the paint around the fuel tank area, it was revealed that E39 chassis has a hidden drain hole in the fuel tank area, seen on the right, where it was intended the water would run off and not accumulate and start rusting. This drain hole (which has no piping inside the chassis) drains straight into the metals between the chassis and accumulates there, which is not a good solution in any way so apparently BMW gave up on this idea and sealed that drain hole with some rubber compound and painted it over, and apparently on every single car this “mistake” exists.

Seeing the meticulous work the painter is doing on the fuel tank area and roof rails, it became clear that it will be a shame to paint the car Hot Rod Flatz after all this work put in, and that what needs to be done is to rather have the car painted the original color, which is BMW Carbon Black.
Another push that tipped toward repainting the car in original color is that Hot Rod Flatz, no matter how decent the paint is out the box, matte black paints can not be repaired and polished when scratches occur. Unless the car is a show-car only, or total garage queen, then it will be driven, and then you will get scratches. The facts in front of me, I realized that I do not want to fly to San Diego to pick up Hot Rod Flatz paint, then ship it as hazardous materials to wherever the car is, and have exactly the same spray-gun with me (in order to get the matte texture to match) and try to match exact same paint/drying temperatures in order to get same shine, just to fix a scratch on the fender that could just be buffed out on regular shiny paint.

Layes of Primer

The M5 Paint Process

M5 E39 replacement parts & details

E39 fuel tank door rust problem fixed forever.

As mentioned earlier in this post, the E39 has a design fault that leads to rust in the fuel cap area.

Once the paint was totally stripped, a small water-run-off outlet was revealed below the paint inside fuel cap area, sealed by rubber from the factory. Turns out that BMW initially had intended to do a proper solution so the water can run off and the metal seam between the panels would not rust from water accumulation. BMW ended up apparently just sealing the small hole with some rubber and painting it over, cutting corners. The water would have nowhere to run off once inside both panels, and would continue to accumulate there and eventually rust. Proper way would been to install a drainage channel that goes to bottom of car, but apparently considering the tight spaces and volume of E39 mass production most likely this option was deemed too expensive, resulting in rust accumulation on almost all E39’s in the fuel cap area.

I told the painter Ainars to clean everything out and bondo the area, so there is seam visible and nowhere for the water to catch and can run freely out from the fuel cap area.

The painter spent couple days creating a properly designed drainage channel with funnel and piping. Parts were sourced from other manufacturers that have something like this in their vehicles.

E39 M5 mirror mechanism repair

The driver door mirror became ‘loose’ with a minor wobble at any time, after being hit by someone in a Las Vegas parking garage.

The problem is OEM mirrors are quite expensive, often in wrong color and mechanism is often worn or also compromised somehow.

I bought an Amazon after-market repair kit for E39 M5 mirror for $50, from China. I must have taken the mirror apart about 35-40 times myself, 20 times to begin with at home, and another 15-20 times at the painter. Then the painter, spent another full day disassembling and assembling another 20 times. We really learned how to take the mirrors apart and put them together really well. We simply could not get it to work properly with the repair kit.

The M5 mirrors are quite an engineering feat. Very complicated for the very simple function of rotation. Apparently totally over engineered and complex, but when working properly, it is a beautiful mechanism.

On image two the difference between Chinese aftermarket (bright metal) and BMW OEM (dark metal) parts are clearly visible. The original parts are far superior in precision, and these parts are very tiny as noted by the penny in background for size reference. The original parts have corners so sharp them 90 degree turns catch the finger like a knife’s blade would do.

Initially put in the aftermarket gears and housing, put the mirror fully together and it would not move what so ever. Then proceed by taking everything apart and examining what is wrong and re-assembling, again. Again and again. Then the gears were removed and replaced with original gears, since the difference in precision was noted and lack of precision prevented gear mechanism from turning properly.

The mechanism was assembled with aftermarket motor & housing, but OEM gears, and still would not turn over. The mirror was then again disassembled, aftermarket motor replaced with OEM motor (aftermarket motor’s spiral gear at end was less precise than OEM motor’s). Still would not turn over, and to make matters worse, the mirror still was wobbly with new aftermarket housing with pins that are not broken, although less wobbly.

Then mechanism was disassembled, and only motor plugged into the car mirror controller, and the rotation function tested, at each step, with bare motor (spinning), then adding the OEM gears, spinning, adding aftermarket housing, still spinning, tightening down the aftermarket housing, then stopped spinning.

Turns out the mechanism was loose/ wobbly with new aftermarket housing because the aftermarket housing has lower precision/tolerance, and the pins are couple microns less in diameter, and that tiny tiny little difference transfers to significant wobble in rotational mechanism once mirror is assembled. We ended up making new tiny spacers from tiny copper pipe that we shaved down, to be worn as sleeves on the aftermarket housing’s pins.

Once assembling the mechanism, and tightening everything down, still the mechanism would not work properly. There is a spring not clearly visible in the images above, that once removed would let the mechanism spin, but needed to be there to keep everything tight. We compressed the spring with 10 ton press in order to make the mechanism spin easier, and it still worked poorly, hearing motor struggling, but things were tight (looseness and wobble gone).
I gave up for the night but the painter proceeded the whole next day to disassemble and assemble the mechanism in order to figure out where the friction was coming from. Turned out that the aftermarket housing for which we built the copper sleeves, was (less than) 1mm too tall, and since in the OEM mechanism everything is near micron precision, that little tiny sub one millimeter difference (even though there is a spring of 5-6mm height there as well), was enough to stop the entire mechanism from functioning. The painter spent the days grinding of microns and re-assembling, disassembling, and so on.. until housing was shaved enough for mechanism to start turning.

Conclusion is that the precision is insane on these OEM mirror mechanisms, and the only way to repair a broken mechanism is to have one or two other donor mirrors in OEM form. The aftermarket repair kits selling for ~$50 are totally useless since literally every single piece (except housing that we shaved) in the repair kit was useless, and the sole reason is lack of precision on the parts. So if you ever decide to repair one of these mirrors, there really is no way of repairing without sourcing OEM donor parts.

We got the mirror working, properly enough, it is nowhere perfect but good enough for the future. The amount of time does not justify the repair. It would been much smarter in retrospect to just order a donor mirror and assemble 1 working from two broken.

Over the winter, the paint will fully harden, then next plan is to paint the whole car with Autoflex matte black liquid wrap coating, which has been showing some amazing results on YouTube. The idea is that coating will protect the original paint and is peel-able, making scratch repairs easy.

The Roadtrip in full video:

The speed demon in us needs to be occasionally tamed. There is some beautiful curiosity about pushing the gas pedal all the way to see what the car can actually do. Constricted by the speed limits in 99% of the world we never get to let it go, never get to just let loose and drive as fast as you want,.
We humans, we are unknowingly addicted to emotion, search for the next emotion that gives us butterflies in the stomach, and makes us feel again like a kid on a roller coaster.

Autobahn is such a place that gives butterflies.

This trip was in the making for the whole spring, but because it was surprisingly hard to collect a good set of friends (everyone is busy with life) to go on the trip, the trip was postponed from summer to autumn- specifically early November, the last moment before winter sets in. The weather in November is unpredictable, sunlight is down and rain is up. Obviously the Autobahn requires dry asphalt and no traffic. We made the plan to arrive in Germany and then just map out where the sun shines and there is no traffic and just head that direction, no other plan than chasing the sun. One one of the days the whole Germany was forecast to be rainy so we drove to Amsterdam to wait out the rain, where it was sunny… and as Germany started clearing up, we headed right back to Germany.

This is our full route, as tracked by GPS systems in the cars.

The GPS system is designed for fleet management and considers everything over 200km/h as an error, hence we had a significant distance that is not reported by GPS where we stayed above 200km/h.

Filling up in Riga, Latvia before leaving to Klaipeda, Lithuania.
The M5 has stickers inspired by Alex Roy’s Team Polizei 144.
The stickers were added for a photoshoot. Also, I figured it would be fun to go with the stickers on the Autobahn, chase the M6 with the M5 and confuse everyone. The POLIZEI, text original livery on Alex Roy’s M5, on the side of car, was replaced with INTERCEPTOR because it is not too smart to have POLIZEI written on the side of the car in Germany.

The DFDS ferry sucks, especially for a vacation trip. The accommodations are Ok, the rooms are Ok, there are only few amenities… but what is expected on a transport ship? What made the ferry suck was the other travelers: only miserable truckers, all of them. Swollen faces and beer bellies from plenty of drinking, and they continued to drink all night. I wonder how they get off the ship in Kiel without getting arrested. It appears pretty certain that the German Polizei does not do breathalyzer tests on the sea faring truckers as they leave the ship. I would suggest Stena Lines or other shipping line.

Fuel. First stop of many. The cars consume fuel at a significant rate during high speed runs. The M6 has a smaller tank and higher fuel consumption than the M5. It really showed because M6 ran out of fuel just as M5’s fuel tank went just below half tank. M5 ended up waiting for M6 quite a bit.

Make sure you have everything with you when entering the Autobahn. Everything costs a lot more at the Autobahn fuel stations, also the fuel stations on Autobahn are not accessible from side roads.
The bottle of windshield washer fluid cost 25 Euro!

We AirBnB’d with some hosts that were brand new, so it was kind of sketchy but after hassle of them picking up phone and accommodating us, we woke up in the morning and realized that we are staying right next to a castle.

We really never have a plan where will end up or where to stay at night, we figure it out towards the evening. This night it turns out it was impossible to get a booking on AirBNB and once we gave up on AirBNB, then also the last hotels (in rural Europe) were closed. AirBNB banned my host right after I had booked and then it was too late to book another one, they obviously would not tell me, but after 3 hours on the phone with them I had figured it all out. AirBNB banned him for offering to circumvent AirBNB fees in his profile or some sketchy thing like that, because of this AirBNB bann move we ended without a place to sleep.

We ended up sleeping in our cars outside the hotel that we had reservations at but clerk had gone home at 23:00 when reservation on Booking.com said midnight. They were all apologetic in the morning as they discovered us leaving and offered us free breakfast.

Amsterdam. Parking is about $100/night in the parking structures around Amsterdam centrum. The GoogleMaps reviews of parking structures are full of bad reviews where people say their cars have been broken into. We got lucky after 2 hours of searching for decent street parking, found a place in upscale area right in front of hotel that has reception clerk 24/7 and has low day rate of 35 Euros per day, per car.

We left Amsterdam since the rain was coming to Amsterdam and head for the Nurburgring. We knew that the possibility of rain is huge on the Nurburgring, but we knew also that tomorrow is the last day of the season and we can’t go there the day after tomorrow, we decided to go and risk it with the rain.

Leaving the Nurburgring.
It was rainy. Nurburgring was having a classic race in the morning and the track would only open after 2:30pm for an hour or so, before season close. We decided against waiting to get a lap or two in before they close, if they even stay open at all due to weather.. So we got back on the Autobahn and drove away from the rain and headed to Munich, where it was forecast to be sunny.

We encountered an Audi A8 wide-body on the way to Munich. The car was from Romania. The guy was the most aggressive driver we came across on the Autobahn during the whole trip. The car was a diesel and did not really stand its ground against the M5 or M6 over 250kmh. After 1 hour of runs, the Audi driver pulled over at the same fuel station we pulled in to (due to G-Power running out of fuel again). The Audi driver asked how many HP the M5 has. I told him 400HP and he replied that the Audi has 500HP but the M5 is faster. I believe the diesel part is what was slowing the Audi down. The G-Power got an engine fault (that neesd the car to restart in order to remove) mid-way on this run of this fuel tank and was limited to 250kmh until fuel station, and could not really show the Audi who up…

The M Power room was void of E34 M5 and E39 M5. I was really looking forward seeing these two in pristine condition. When I realized they don’t have a single E34 M5 or E39 M5 at the museum I became disappointed and put a 1 star rating on the museum on GoogleMaps. I rather see a warehouse full of entire BMW production line than some select fancy rooms and stuff, where a lot of machines I wanna see are missing.

It is quite amazing to see these old machines in pristine condition. To see an old 3-series how it was, when it was brand new. Surprising was most of the cars at the museum had plenty of miles on them, they were never set aside for museum purposes, but most likely later re-acquired from private market for museum purposes.

BMW M5: The Complete Story. That’s my book!.. That’s what I said anyway. I told everyone to hold because I need to find my car and started flipping through the pages. I was joking with them, but then it became true. My car was in the book. The pictures from years ago that I took and uploaded to Wikimedia were published in the book.

After visiting the BMW Museum and now on the road for a week, we initially had a plan to drive to Italy and then Santorini. Italy had had torrential rains for a month and no sign of letting go, so we decided against trying to cross the Alps while it is snowing and Italy looking increasingly like a disaster zone. This is where we decided to head back to Latvia.

At this time I was actually getting tired of driving on the Autobahn. It is exhausting to drive over 250kmh, the amount of concentration required wears one out fast. Anita was just sleeping in the passenger seat at times, at 250kmh. The brakes on the car were with US Spec standard rotors, that are not of the floating-type design. They had begun warping toward the end of the trip, due to uneven heating (delta) on the brake rotor center cone/dome and the rotor itself and heat expansions doing its job.

The speedometer was also shot. It broke in Munich. I was getting no speedometer and after inspection the conclusion was that the rear left drive axle’s boot/cover had started to come loose at the seam and spilled grease everywhere in the wheel hub with centrifugal force, clogging the speed sensor. Numerous attempts were made to try to clean the speed sensor but it only worked for couple km and then failed again. When using a high pressure washer and hitting the speed sensor, we got it to work for 100km or so.. Then fail again due to the grease getting everywhere.

Numerous attempts were made to clear the speed sensor from grease from rear axle. This time by removing the rear wheel and spraying brake cleaner to unclog it. The service shop across the street were idiots and would not lend me the jack stand for 10eur for 10 min. I had to use the BMW road-side jack stand, which worked fine.

After days on the Autobahn and high speed driving I had actually gotten a little tired from unlimited speed and just wanted to relax and sit on Instagram for a change. A funny feeling, because I never thought I would get enough of the Autobahn, and that I will want to just go fast forever, but such is not the case in life. One actually gets tired of it eventually. I remember a M5Board member from Germany once saying “high speed driving gets boring” and I could not believe him. Now I know what he meant by that. I was finally full of the emotion “driving really fast”, ready to go home and relax for the winter.

The speedo was broken so I plugged in Bluetooth OBDII reader and setup the Torque App on phone to be a speedo and tacho HUD. Torque App has bunch of settings to work as a HUD, mirroring the image so it would look correct on the windshield and hiding all the Android icons, etc. The HUD speedo data is sourced from GPS speed instead of speed sensor and Tacho is sourced from OBDII link.

The M5 and the M6 were both driving behind a semi truck in the darkness of 4AM in Lithuanian nowhere, when a dead deer suddenly appeared behind the center of rear end of the semi truck and before the M6 had a chance to react, the M6 ran over the dead deer. The M6 has specially designed kevlar undercarriage panels, same form as regular but really durable. The M6 jumped on the deer and crushed it some more. Then came the M5 right in the heels and splattered it all over as well. There was no damage to the cars surprisingly, but the M6 front wheels were all red with blood splatter and the M5 had the whole undercarriage in red. I had to take the car to a specific shot that washes the undercarriage. The car was smelling like BBQ for the rest of the trip to Riga and then started smelling burnt as the meat was roasting on the exhaust pipes. Footage of the deer incident can be found in the 20 min YouTube video posted at end of this post.

The Videos of the Road Trip

Hello fellow drivers, I usually post about the M5 E39 but this time I will let it slide and post about the M6 G-Power.

On late Thursday evening I was biking past a good friend’s apartment building in Riga, Latvia, when I unexpectedly see him outside, unpacking stuff from his M6 into an Opel. He immediately tells me he’s packing for TransAlp mountain bike race and that he is heading to the Alps in the morning. He asks me to come along. I ask him about the transportation– It would be the Opel and I’d be riding bitch (the rear middle seat) all ~30 hours to Austria. I tell him “Hell NO, but I tell you what– I’ll go if I take your M6.”…. He asks “Why not your M5?” … I reply “Because I’ve already gone 300km/h with the M5, and now I wanna go 350km/h”. With M6 keys in my hand I start making next day preparations.

I called Elina at midnight and convinced her to drop work for a week in the last minute, and come with me in the morning on the spontaneous road trip.

The route to Italy through Autobahn and Alps.

Next morning, I take the car to the tire shop for inspection because when on the Autobahn, for extended periods of time we’ll be holding speeds greater than airplanes take off from. I had them replace the rims/tire setup– install back the G-Power rims and 300km/h+ rated tires. The existing “winter” tire setup was W-rated, only allowing 270km/h, plus it’s summer.

I was a little anxious there might be some issues with the M6 found during inspection that prevents me from the last minute road trip, but better to be safe than sorry. Everything checked out nicely.

While passing trucks on the Polish highways the machine went into fail-safe mode with reduced power. Initially worried, to check in on the situation, I pulled off the polish highway and let the car sit for a bit while I Google’d the Forums of vast BMW M6 knowledge. With no clear explanation in sight, and appearing that it’s idling and driving quite fine with the reduced power due to Engine Fault Mode, I made the decision NOT to turn around, and keep driving towards the Autobahn. It later turned out the G-Power air filters were fairly clogged and were causing the errors, but I only got that settled once I got back home many thousands of km later.

Fueling up in Warsaw, Poland. Just got to the Polish ‘bahn and now getting ready for some nice cruising to Berlin. The stretch from Riga to Warsaw is a slow one going through many Polish towns and construction sites– the highway is coming soon, they are building it now, but from Warsaw to Berlin it’s good cruising.

We crashed at a friend’s place in Berlin and next morning we were on the Autobahn heading towards Munich.

I was told the M6 eats oil and although I topped it off in Latvia, I got the Low Oil indicator on the Autobahn and was forced to pull off in search of fuel and oil.

Quite mediocre picture and speed. Moving about half speed, half rpm, half temp, only halfway there.

Munich 332KM with the “speed limit cancelled” signs coming up. These white signs with 3 lines across means that the speed limit is lifted (or dropped?) and you can floor the pedal to the metal, legally. It’s a very liberating feeling to be “released” into the open.

Drove all evening on the Autobahn to Munich. The Autobahn is much more of a dream than a reality. For most, who have never been, it’s a place in a fairy tale land where one can drive all day as fast as one wishes, but that’s quite different from the truth.
Truth is that the Autobahn is full of traffic because Germany is very densely populated. The usual situation is that traffic slows you down by getting in the left lane in order to pass other slower drivers, but passing so at 200km/h or even as low as 150km/h, while one is coming up on them (in the left lane) at 280km/h+ while slamming the brakes.
Weather kills the joy, too. During rain (logically so) the speed limit is raised on most unlimited stretches, forcing you back to reality.
Construction is another thing no one imagines when thinking of the Autobahn. Large sections are always under construction, causing heavy traffic and long waits, while slowing everyone down to 50km/h vmax.

It’s quite impossible to enjoy the scenery and drive at 300km/h. At 300km/h the eyes have laser focus on the road, and everything around seems like a blur while one keeps searching the horizon for cars that might get in the way. After hours at 250km/h (150mph) one welcomes a construction zone, because finally one is forced to go 50km/h and can finally relax, take the hands of the wheel and move around, read up on any instrument panel Christmas tree stories, etc. It’s welcomed after a good sprint. The problem is that construction zones are too frequent.


Passed through Munich, filled up the tank, got lost for 30 minutes (with navigation) in the confusing tunnels downtown, where the roads run above and below ground in parallel. Took to the Autobahn 95 out of Munich towards the Alps, specifically Nauders, Austria. The A95 is quite twisty and there’s no street lights, yet numerous cars are driving at 250km/h into the darkness. The light high beams don’t reach far enough at 250km/h. It’s quite dangerous, and it baffles my mind that Germany lets people move at these speeds at nights. A lot of responsibility is required by the people to allow such speeds.

Nauders really impressed me, it is beautiful, rural and yet civilized. Hens and chickens run around historic apartment buildings on the Alpine hillside, while farmers drive their tractors and mow all the grass on all the surrounding slopes. Here people don’t waste a single square meter, everything is cultivated. The tractors can’t turn around on the slopes or they’d tip over so they are driven up and backed down in same tracks.

Nauders is one of those tranquil places that left a good impression.

===== The Stelvio Pass =====

Yes, yes, yes. I woke up in Livigno and realized “Waaaiiiit?… I must be close to Stelvio Pass!”. Checked the maps and there it was, little over one hour away, so we started moving towards Stelvio. It’s a fantastic place, terrific people, I wish I had some property there, so fantastic they should build a wall to keep people out… jokes aside, it’s another one of those life’s to-do list check boxes one needs to check off.


Each road has the right mode of transportation and for Stelvio it is the bicycle in my opinion.

I drove up 3 bicycles to the top of Stelvio, then gave the keys to the ladies (they protested driving down such narrow roads with Manual transmission but they didn’t have a choice), while the other three of us jumped on the bikes and rolled down all the way. It’s about 22 km pure downhill all the way to Bormio, Italy from Stelvio Pass’ top. No need to pedaling for ~30 minutes. Stelvio is too narrow and too curvy for cars to get up to any enjoyable speed and way too much traffic. Being one of the greatest driving roads is greatest on a bicycle.

Speeds of 70km/h on a mountain bike were reached, while being careful and those with road bicycles went even faster. Biking down Stelvio was the most amazing thing I’ve done on a bicycle, period.

That’s us, after biking down Stelvio. The smile on my face lasted all evening. Unfortunately no Go-Pro’s were mounted on the bicycles to show the joy, but there’s plenty of videos of bicycles down Stelvio on YouTube.


Next day it was time to conquer Stelvio Pass with our own strengths, to bike up to the top and then roll down. We had never done such long continuous up-hill on a bicycle. We pedaled up for about two hours in the lower gear and reached the top of Stelvio.

On the way down we “raced” two black 911’s with bicycles into the sunset. They were not going much faster due to the narrow road and curves, and probably at some points just slowing down for us because we got in front of them.


Next day it was time to move on from Bormio, Italy, back to Austria and towards the Autobahn. The chosen path ( of course ) was across Stelvio Pass into Austria.

Enjoying some coffee at the top of Stelvio Pass, while getting quick work done on the laptop. Never thought I’d be chasing down programmers over phone and email at Stelvio Pass, while that’s cool, it’s much cooler to unplug and suck in the experience.

Coming down the north side of Stelvio Pass, it’s even longer than the south-side towards Bormio. There’s so many hairpin turns that one gets quite tired of them, seems like endless dizziness on the way down.

As we entered Germany, something funny happened– even though it’s Schengen Zone, there’s a police car on the Austria to Germany border. As we pass the polizei wagen, I look in the mirror and see him pull out from the side of the road and speed up. Next, he’s behind me in the left lane, there’s only two options now- I’m in his way or I’m guilty. There’s really not enough space for me in the right lane, but I squeeze in anyway. The polizei squeezes in right behind me and so I start looking for a place to pull over because I’m apparently guilty of something– I know Germany has banned Gumball Rally, and it has not been back since mass arrest of all Gumball cars in 2007. The M6 has GUMBALL license plates. Then I see in the rear view mirror that the cop is doing something with his hands, which gets me confused. The polizei pulls up to the left of me, mirror by mirror, and that’s when I realize they are taking pictures of the car and he’s holding his phone. Both smile and proceed to give thumbs up. That means they know of Gumball Rally, they know G-Power, and they know what I will do on their Autobahn. The seal of approval was very nice. Many thumbs up received that day actually, the Germans know their cars. While in traffic around sunset time, a dad in his 60s with his Benz fully loaded with wife, kids and house trailer in tow, rolled all his windows down on the Benz to hear the M6’s exhaust. I revved it for him. There was a sight of satisfaction in his face. Came also across couple M’s, but there was little space at those times to play.


We happened to be driving through Munich right as the terror attacks happened in July, we didn’t hear the bullets or find out until on the Autobahn, leaving Munich. There were dozens and dozens of police cars flying toward Munich with sirens on. 3 dozen police cars later I opened ZeroHedge to check the news and there it was. I did not count, but we saw well over 100 police cars on the A9 toward Munich.


The traffic was heavy on the A9 and I thought I was done exercising the Unlimited Speed privilege. The BMW navigation was reporting 2 hour 30 min delay in traffic, or an alternative route of additional 220km through the A73. I figured- I just want to keep moving, so I take the 200+km detour. Turns out while the A9 is jam packed, the A73 from Nuremberg to A4 is near completely empty on a Friday night, and A73 is of the unlimited kind. The A9 and other main route Autobahns are congested, but here on the roads less traveled it is clear.

While I was driving on the quite empty and curvy A73 Autobahn doing 270-280km/h, a traffic polizei who was chilling on the side of the road, decided to pull out on Autobahn, right in front of me. I got worried because there’s no one around, so it must be me he’s pulling out for… and this is the traffic police… I decided to slow down to only 200km/h while passing them, because it feels so wrong to blow by traffic police at 200km/h (that just pulled out from side of the road).

The vast majority of people on earth without the privilege of living next to the on-ramp of Autobahn type Unlimited, have their whole driving lives been programmed that the cost of the privilege of passing a Police car at 200+km/h means definite visit to Police station and couple thousand $$$$ paid for exercising such right. Aware of such consequences, I get an adrenaline rush.

The Traffic Polizei 2016 Benz E-class Touring gets behind me, follows me at minimum safe distance, as I’m driving at 200km/h. I start looking around, thinking “maybe I missed some sign”… One just does not have time to read all the signs at 280km/h. This section of the Autobahn is also quite curvy, really pulling into the turns at 200km/h+. The Polizei is definitely pushing the Benz as well.

Faced with dilemma now- Keep slowing down below 200km/h on an unlimited section makes me look guilty, so I start climbing back up to 250km/h going into some pretty strong turns. At 250km/h I look into rear view mirror and see the Polizei is still minimum safe distance from the the M6. I think about the situation for a second, clear the turn, downshift into 6th gear, spool up the superchargers to ~7000rpm, keep it there for a while to make sure pressure is there and then punch it. The machine puts you back in the seat at 250km/h, I feel the pull. I see the Polizei becoming smaller and smaller in the mirror quite fast, and shortly even on the straightaway the Polizei and I have both disappeared entirely from each others views.

Driving at 300km/h+

The M6’s fuel tank is relatively small. Fuel stops happen all too often on the Autobahn due to fuel consumption at high speeds. I filled up 4 times full tank between Salzburg and Berlin, even though I drove mostly moderate due to heavy traffic. At 300km/h the fuel consumption is above 30liters/100km and you’re doing 300km/h, meaning the fuel tank is empty in ~45 minutes at 300km/h.

Berlin was interesting. Woke up in the morning and there’s a LGBT parade on the street we are staying on, guys with their schlongs out jumping around between passing women that are wearing burkas. I won’t post the photos here in order to keep it PG.

Autobahn der Freiheit.
These are posted on the Autobahn when approaching a national border. This is the sign leaving Germany. It’s a sad sign because Autobahn is ending in couple km. Entering Germany the same sign feels like a very warm welcome.

Every so many KM on the Polish Bahn there are these rather large rest stops. It appears as if someone used CTRL+C and CTRL+V all the way from the German border to Warsaw. This is one such stop. We ate bunch of things McDonalds sells and although I’d like to say “It was just like America”, it wasn’t.. This was actually better. They are also getting rid of all the employees and replacing them with touch-screen ordering machines and I used the machines, because the machines speak English to me, the employees do not…

The rotors ended up warping on the trip and the brake shimmer became significant by the time we got home. Check engine light went on & etc gremlins popped out. M6 ended with whole bunch of stuff getting fixed after Autobahn. Shiny new rotors and 2-3 days of other labor tasks.
The service center Mriepas.lv did the work. After picking up the car, later they called and asked if there are any “but this isn’t right”, there were none. Rarely there is a job done at a service center where everything is 100% fine when leaving.

Shipped the M5 E39 from United States to Europe.
You can read on the driving across United States to ship to Europe here, in previous post:
http://www.otomobile.com/m5-e39-x-continental-road-trip-usa-europe-autobahn-nurburgring/

Receiving M5 at the Port:

The freight forwarder told me the car would arrive in 3 weeks, but it was more like 7-8 weeks. Pretty much double everything they tell you.
I bought shipping insurance, then found my roof fairly scratched upon arrival. Inquired to them regarding a claim, but they did not respond… will probably paint whole car again in near future.
Picking up the car at the port, this is first sight of car in Europe. Mind slightly blown. It’s been with me in USA for 7+ years, and now it is in Europe. EUROPE!!!

Enjoying the M5 in Europe

Stopped by a childhood friend who now runs the auto service MRiepas.lv .
Replaced all steering control arms & links, sway bar links, oil change, windshield washer pump & lines, brake lines and brake fluid, Michelin ZR rated tires & alignment. The M5 is ready for Autobahn max speed. Die Maschine bereit für die Autobahn ist!!! Drives like new!

In middle of Nowhere, Poland, on a really foggy night:
What happened here:
I had been too busy enjoying my stay in Riga and elsewhere..
I had been putting off going to the Autobahn and Nürburgring until later (“I still got some time before Winter”). Then one Saturday I realized Nürburgring probably closes for the season sometime soon! I immediately went home and called Nürburgring and the woman on the phone told me that tomorrow is probably the last day for the season, judging by weather. Nürburgring is 2000km away from me, now in Latvia. I calculated that the only way I can make it on time to Nürburgring is if I leave right now and drive non-stop 20+ hours. I immediately went and had a big dinner, grabbed my brother and started driving to Germany and Nürburgring. I left at 6:30PM and drove all night to Germany. Hit massive fog at the Lithuanian and Polish border, that lasted through winding back country roads all the way to Warsaw. I started considering turning around because I was forced to drive 50kmh, due to less than 30 feet of visibility. Stopped twice to try to adjust headlight fall-off. Ran over a dead deer, that I could not see on the road at 50kmh. It damaged/ripped couple under panels on the car, but those I managed to tighten down enough to hold steady for Autobahn and last until I can get the car on a lift. All in all the Lithuania-Poland segment was drivers hell, no visibility, seemingly endless, on a cold, wet, moist night somewhere in Nowhere, Eastern Europe. Made the decision if Fog continues after Warsaw probably should turn around and call it a 2000km detour/mistake…
Got shadowed by the Polish police, utterly confused what I’m doing out there with such plates at such hour, in middle of nowhere.

Fueling up in Warsaw, after wet fog hell for 5 hours. Finally fog clears and rain starts instead. In Poland, apparently the police can not sit on the side of the road at night, if the road is not lighted up. This means dark highway segments are free cruising zone and even if the Polish ‘bahn has 140kmh speed limit, you see cars moving quite bit faster through the dark areas. Average time to Germany was great.

Aaaah! Finally the M5 is back in the Vaterland! Entered Germany and first road sign I see is “Autobahn der Freiheit”, translated to “Highway of Freedom”. HAHAH!!!! Muoahahaha!! Finally the machine will be used for what it was designed. I was waiting for the ‘3x stripes’ road sign that cancels the speed limit, but spent another 30 minutes driving inland before I saw it. This is seconds after passing the ‘no speed limit’ sign.

Here’s a video with shots filmed on Autobahn while cruising to the Nurburgring.
It’s Sunday morning and trucks are not allowed on Autobahn on Sundays! The Polish nightmare fog is a distant memory. The weather is beautiful, the Autobahn is open. The M5 runs strong. The destination is Nurburgring. I haven’t slept for 24 hours, while driving last 14 hours non-stop. Everything’s awesome!

While in the left lane, an Opel popped in the rear view mirror at 250kmh, asking kindly to pass. I move over and let him pass, then he maxed out his Opel at 260kmh+ and moved over to the right, letting me pass him. Even at 250kmh you gotta check your rear view mirror. Fuel drains at a very fast rate at this speed. 2.5x to 3x worse consumption, while moving at 2.5-3x rate of normal 100kmh.. So the tank needle moves about 9x faster.. almost possible to see it physically move.

I have two GPS tracking devices in the car. One is anti-theft low frequency position pinger (hidden by company, so I don’t even know where it is) and the other is advanced vehicle tracking/management system by SkyFMS.com.
I checked SkyFMS tracker history and there were two segments on Autobahn of 54 km and of 80km where speed never dropped below 200kmh. Still Autobahn has plenty of speed restrictions, construction zones, city zones, high traffic zones, poor segment zones. Germany is densely populated (with plenty traffic), which means that often (except Sunny Sunday Morning), Autobahn can not be used to full potential.

Max speed on Autobahn was GPS-recorded at 274.xx km/h. I did not try to max the car out, I was just crusing as it felt comfortable considering traffic and conditions.

I made sure to bring with me the song Kraftwerk – Autobahn. It was on repeat for most of the time. Just like the video.


All in all, the drive across Germany to Nurburgring seemed very short, fast, blurr.. warp zone activated.

At the Nurburgring fuel station, with plenty of interesting cars popping in n’ out. There’s so many nice cars moving around Nurburgring. Scenery is gorgeous. A magnificent place.

Due to accident and my late arrival, I only got 1 lap in on Nurburgring, but bucket list check has been completed. I am not disappointed because I actually didn’t believe I’ll make it when I left Latvia.
Next year I come for more.
Met another Belgian guy who tracks his E39 M5 on the ‘ring weekly. Also one of the Nurburgring service cars is an E39 M5 Silverstone.

Back in Copehagen, Denmark. Everyone bikes. Norrport Station, bicycle parking as far as the eye can see. Amazing city. I suggest going to Cristiania once you get to Copenhagen, but don’t bring a camera, cameras are forbidden there.

What I learned here is that the Swedish police does not use radar, that max speeding fine is 4000 Svenska Kronor, and that they can not take a foreigner’s driver license.
“Hello there, English? … You are driving little fast, it’s no big problem, but it will cost you a little”.
*Janks out the driver license from my hand”.
“In Sweden, if you Swedish and we catch you like this, we take your driver license”
*Hands back driver license*
“But not you, you are OK”.

Told officer “Your roads are better than the Autobahn and I didn’t see where I crossed the border.”, the officer enjoyed the compliment and smiled back.
They asked where my front license plate was, I told them it’s in the window. They told me I have to put it on at the fuel station. I told them I don’t have holes for it. They said “Have a very good day in Sweden, enjoy your stay, good bye now”. Very polite. Very clique for the polite Swedish. Spoke English very well.

At Frihamnen port in Sweden. Got stormed by the customs authorities. Quite aggressive. Thought that they had a case of customs tax evasion or something, apparently they had never seen California license plates.
Question me and brother, checked all documents (US documents).
I speak Swedish and understood what they were saying, “Why are we so worried about this car?” .. “Because this is so damn unusual, I have never seen this”. I spoke to them in English, not to confuse them even more (of what I’m doing in Sweden with US plates) by speaking Swedish.

On the ferry, getting shipped back out east from Stockholm. Police/customs officers standing in a row, one after another, each asking same stupid interview questions all the way to the car deck on ship. At this point I got really tired of all the attention that the foreign plates and suspiciously looking car brings.

I still got terabytes of video to go through, filmed from the M5’s 5x security cameras and multiple video cameras. I just barely got done with pictures.
Going to lay low for winter with M5. Next spring must figure out where to go next, maybe more east- to Russia, or Africa, or something…

Last year (2014) I decided to quit my job and drive around the planet with the M5. First destination was Europe and Autobahn, but I got in some frustrating trouble, about which you can read here:

http://www.m5board.com/vbulletin/e39-m5-e52-z8-discussion/384185-m5-inter-transcontinental-trip-accident-long-story-frustration-galore-lots-pics-quit-my-job-driving-around-half-planet.html


Anyway, I put everything on hold for a year and did it again in spring of 2015 on almost exact dates… and… success!
Parked the car for the (Californian) 2014/2015 winter in garage, and went to Europe anyway and came back in Spring 2015 to pick up the M5 and ship it to Europe.


Back in May 2015, busy with life and adventures, decided in last second that it’s time to do this trip attempt again and time is now & of the essence.
Ofcourse, road trip is significantly less fun without someone to share the memories with…. did my best to gather my friends to join in:

– I flew from Riga, Latvia to Los Angeles.
– Didzis flew in from Africa to LA. (While he was driving to airport, bought ticket for him, hit BUY just as he arrived at check-in.)
– Mona flew in from London to LA. (Convinced her 2 days before Road Trip starts to drop everything and come)
– Janis flew from Seattle to LA.
– Xenia (who I had met in Europe right before flying to LA) flew from Moscow to LA in last minute… Told her “Just get here, now, I’ll take care of the rest and everything”. She showed up ~20 hours later from Moscow.
– Thomas awaited us in LA; also wanted to ship his Volvo to Europe.

From no plan, in 5 days we had planned a trip and got a crew together.

So now we had 6 people, and 2 cars and 3000+ miles in front of us to NYC.
We had a big party in LA and headed out to NYC, and Europe.

Installing 5x camera, full HD, microphone, security surveillance system in the M5, in order to document all of road trip in detail and record everything, from all angles.
Can connect through mobile app to security surveillance system and see what’s going on while driving, live.

50 Miles / 80KM without a single turn. No phone reception for last ~20 hours. I already blew out a tire on this road with the M5, in exact same spot, years ago. Triple digit speed.
The asphalt is very coarse and hot, highly risky to speed. Sides of road are littered with destroyed tires. Closest tire shop that carries something that fits M5 is 188 miles / 305km away.

We left with low thread on the back wheels, figured there’s enough for 3000 miles or so… but we didn’t count on Death Valley and the heat; the tires got soft at Death Valley where temps were at 49c / 120f in the “shade”. Thread was worn completely bald by time we got to Las Vegas, and the M5 has significant camber. Ended up driving from nowhere Kansas all the way to Des Moines, Iowa before I found a tire shop that carried something that fits the M5.

At port in New Jersey, getting the car ready for shipment to Europe.
It was Saturday morning and we had to get there before noon- when the gates close. I was running out of fuel and last place I fueled up was Pennyslavnia. I decided to risk it and not fuel up, not knowing if I will make it. The car choked to stop right in front of the gates and we had to push it in at 11:59, literally. Ha ha. This means it was EXACTLY one full tank from the last place I filled up to the port.

Hello fine M5 brothers! I got in some frustrating trouble..

I decided to quit my job and take off to Europe for the summer with the M5, this decision was back in April. During May and beginning of June I moved out of my place and shipped a good amount of my stuff to Europe in a crate. Intention was to drive from LA to NYC and ship car to *anywhere* in Europe, by so getting a road trip out of it and faster shipment time from NYC than from LA. No real long term plan.. just ‘gotta do this or I’ll regret it’.

Before moving out, figured it was a good time to do quick photoshoot of my M5 in the driveway:

Had the car on jacks between May 25th and June 12th, doing repairs for the transcontinental drive and Autobahn preparations.. which included:

• Brakes/rotors
• H&R spacers 15mm
• EGR Valve
• Valve covers
• Spark plugs
• Belts
• Tensioners & pulleys
• Transmission oil
• Diff oil
• Power steering fluid change/flush
• Coolant flush
• Oil change
• Thermostat
• Temp sensor
• That other coolant sensor
• Air filters
• Fuel filter
• Rear door vapor barrier fix
• Hood alarm sensor
• Other sensors…& misc other replacements and repairs I forget by now..

Had to move out of the house by end of May, the car was still on jack stands waiting for pulley tensioner to arrive from Clemster. Clemster saved my wallet and the day!!
These parts are $$$$ @ Stealer. The pulley tensioner bracket experienced ‘galvanic corrosion’ and the threads stripped. Very frustrating when stressed and trying to move out. Had no choice but to tow it to friend’s shop.

The M5 and CiTi commuter ‘proof of concept’ motorcycle at my friend’s shop.
He’s designing the safest motorcycle ‘3-wheeler’ in the world, able to split lanes, more narrow than a police motorcycle and will have a body shell, giving ability to drive in rain in traffic safely @ 50mpg w/ Aprilia motor @ 180hp.
This is the fist ‘proof of concept’, the first prototype is coming up.

Replacing the transmission fluid with Royal Purple and a pump nozzle I purchased @ Autozone for $5.
The original ‘life time’ transmission fluid was actually fairly clear for being in for 100,000 miles. Since the transmission oil does not enter the combustion chamber / cylinders like engine oil does, the oil does not get polluted with carbons, etc like engine oil. Gear oil was fairly clear too after 100,000 miles. The original transmission oil smelled like latex rubber, and Royal Purple smelled more like transmission fluid.

I didn’t believe in these “pseudo effects” people post here about smoother shifts after transmission oil change, but indeed it was slightly smoother shift, especially engaging into 1st gear. So, yes… it does make a difference.

Car was finished after sitting on jack stands for 14 days. Packed up & it was time to hit the road and drive from LA to NYC to ship car to Europe.

Left LA on June 14th, with flight ticket and container booked at NYC and by midnight was in middle of Arizona desert cruising comfortably when … SUDDENLY .. BAM!!!!!!

A shredded truck tire appears flying at the speed of sound from the semi truck in the right lane.. and nails the front of the car. The tire made the car jump of the ground as it passed underneath. Immediately pull over to asses damage, based on the hit (never hit anything close to that hard before)… there’s damage.

Get out and see the lower front end of the car missing and/or shredded with semi truck tire rubber/shrapnel lodged in auxiliary fan, preventing it from spinning. Immediately concluded that the trip is not happening and this will be needing a very far tow.
Cancelled air line tickets, container shipments, hotels, etc.. sucks with only-partial or non-refunds policies. Makes me think it is cheaper just to not plan anything and hope for best outcome in last minute- say hoping finding airline ticket same day for good price, etc.

The oxygen sensors are ripped off, all undercarriage panels damaged/destroyed, front bumper and fog lights wasted. Radiator bent back (stupid design on these cars- no lower core support), coolant smell appears as I keep running the car seeing if anything is getting stuck in belt fan or elsewhere; assessing if the car can be driven slowly to a better place.

The remnants of the semi truck tire after impact:

Fog light placed for comparison

Call AAA and I got the premium membership which offers 200 miles of free towing once a year (totally payed off for me). The AAA tow truck takes 3 hours to appear and at 3:00 am the car is moved onto the tow truck.

Still stoked on the repairs and new pulleys (that quieted engine down). The car has 152,000 miles on it and engine runs very quietly and smoothly. Sounds as if it was new. The tow truck driver had the tow truck turned off and desert silence (aside from distant cars), and was attaching the straps to the vehicle and asked “Is this thing on?”… lol. Stock exhaust & ripped oxygen sensors. HA!

Since there was 3 of us in the car AAA tried getting a crew cab tow truck, but no luck in the middle of cactus world. The tow truck driver offers us to sit in the M5 on the flat bed for the ~6 hour drive back to LA basin, since there’s no room in the cab. For next hours, we do exactly that. Bumpy ride I have to tell you, even with M5 and tow truck suspension. Tow truck’s charging $6/mile so AAA had a nice bill after 230+ miles to east side of So-Cal/San Bernardino city, where I had to pitch the final difference of 30+ miles. 9 hours later I arrived back in So-Cal @ 9am. As the morning dawned, realized there’s 2-3 shredded semi tires every mile. The Arizona heat from the asphalt, friction, etc. causes tires to fail at a high rate, leaving debris everywhere…

Tow truck ride:

Does not really show the full extent of damage here. That tire weighted 50+ pounds and at ~75mph the impact is serious, even if it is only rubber. It bends metal, rips through plastic bumper like it was a glowing hot Hattori Hanzo through butter.

I was concerned about the car getting salvaged due to age and high miles (Salvaged cars are not allowed in Germany/Autobahn)…
But the damage has to exceed 80% of car value and car was valued at $15,000+ by Mercury Insurance inspector/adjuster… @ 152,000 miles. These machines keep up the value lately…

Take the car initially to the first body shop I can find in San Bernardino, it is M&G auto body, quite small but it was the only one that picked up the phone on early Sunday morning. Drop the car/keys off and head home to get some sleep.

Now comes the trouble:

Epic road trip and inter-transcontinental drive delayed, I want a fast resolution.. but not so fast according to Mercury.

The insurance inspector shows up 3 days later, I head to meet him at shop and go over the damage.

Damage was on:

• Radiator dis-lodged from support and smelling coolant
• Radiator metal core support piece slightly out of alignment
• Head lights pointing down severely low (noticed when parked after accident)
• Hood (bent and scratched by tire wires)
• Bumper
• Aux fan
• Oxygen sensors ripped off
• Headlight Washer system
• All undercarriage panels
• Ambient temp sensor missing
• Fuel line retaining/fastener bracket
• Front Brake-air ducts bent up
• Told them to throw away Dinan Cold air intake water guards (mangled)
• Fog lights
• Plastics surrounding Aux fan

The Mercury insurance inspector advises me taking car to a better shop where they can inspect the cooling system (since no visible leaks, just smell) and where he would take his car to…. Caliber Collision in Riverside, CA.

After a cluster F*** of towing hassle and a day wasted on that, the car arrives at Caliber Collision only for them to notify me contrary to Inspector’s statements that they can’t paint the car there because they only deal with official BMW colors and I got custom paint job “Hot Rod Flatz’.
I am more concerned with getting the cooling system/radiator inspected and the mis-aligned core support adjusted back straight.
I advise on the concerns issues, go over car with Caliber rep. Caliber calls me 3 days later, saying “Please come by, show us again what were your concerns”…I drive to them AGAIN (30+ miles one way for the nTh time) to repeat myself on just about everything.

Then Mercury / Caliber notifies me they won’t be able to do anything with the hood because it had “previous repairs”. I state it was in acceptable condition and send the same photos as posted above, where they rebuttal with “It is not up to industry standard”.
Well at least.. if they are so concerned with “Industry Standard” the rest of the vehicle should come out in top shape…minus paint. .. WRONG!

I get notified vehicle is “COMPLETE”, after more than 2 weeks. I drive to pick it up. The work performed on vehicle is something that could have taken me 1 day to get parts and 1 day to fix…. but I would have to be on some serious drugs to do such a poor quality job.

On preliminary inspection I notice:

• The radiator/core support is not straightened or replaced, not touched what-so-ever.
• The Aux fan that got hit only has the outside ‘mesh’ plastic replaced, though still spinning & wobbling, it was hit heavily during impact.
• The fog lights are fogged up (lol). These are supposed to be water tight & brand new.
• The fog light covers/bezel is missing
• The head lights are still pointing down 20 feet in front of vehicle making it unsafe to drive. They just ignored this completely.
• The bumper is not aligned to headlights with one side having a bigger gap than other.
• The undercarriage panels are miss-aligned. I suppose they did not bother replacing the bent brackets holding such panels.

The shop Caliber Collision, claiming being best in industry and Mercury just bombed the job completely.
Here is the ‘damaged’ fruit of their labor considered “COMPLETE”. What a joke & all per Mercury’s recommendations.

I drove to Caliber, expected to pick up vehicle, then notified of missing bezels/OEM parts and drove back to OC and kept rental until they fix it right, while figuring out what to do about paint situation w/ Mercury. Then I was notified by Mercury the car is indeed “COMPLETE” and I have to pick it up and return rental. 91 Fwy is some of worst traffic on planet and I wasted literally all day on it getting yanked back and forth by Insurance / Collision Repair Facility. Nightmare.

At this point I actually want to summon the hive mind of the M5Board to find the best BMW repair shop in Orange County and best independent inspector, which is where I want to take the car. Upon inspection I want to get the paperwork of the short comings and submit it with a lawyer to file suit. I have some lawyers in mind but maybe you guys know some really nasty ones that can make Caliber and Mercury bend over and take it so hard that they’ll be walking like cowboys for months for negligence and wasting my time & lost wages, etc. I want to get nasty with them.

I’ve lost more than 2 weeks of my trip already, sitting in limbo in LA waiting for things to get fixed.. now I have to spend more time fixing the negligence issues.
Paying the deductible at Caliber Collision body shop when picking up the car in this shape, was insulting, to say the least.

After bending Mercury over and sending them all the way back to Stonage or Mars, I will try again. I am too deep in on this to quit now.

July 4th, 2014
I called the insurance company and stated my lawyering up procedures and so and seems like they have gotten the message.
The car will be next week at Century Collision in Orange, CA and the inspectors will go over it and insurance company will pull their own inspectors out there as well.

I also got some ‘customer quality assurance’ representative calling me today and asking about my satisfaction at Caliber Collision.
I stated my nightmare scenario with Caliber, just like written up here.

Then came the kicker: The insurance guy said “Would you recommend Caliber Collision to your friends or family?”
I responded with “Absolutely NOT, matter of fact I posted the whole story on the Internet on BMW M5 enthusiast forum and a lawyer who owns same car said ‘How do they sleep at night, performing such work’… and one member EVEN offered to PayPal me beer money as condolences for what I have to deal with Caliber. I am not joking, go look it up on M5Board.”

July 11th, 2014
I delivered the car to Century Collision in Orange, CA beginning of this week. Found them through old posts on M5Board and figured if M5Board-ers say it’s alright, I should try them out. Caesar (owner) is definitely knowledgeable, I got a decent feeling.

The car was lifted up and Mercury Insurance adjuster came around again on Tuesday, I went in to Century Collision to attend the assessment of ‘damage’ done by Caliber Collision Riverside. Caliber did not replace various damaged parts that were hiding above the under-trays/engine covers.

Since I drove to Caliber Collision Riverside 3 times to explain exactly what I see damaged, ensure those fools do it right (one of the times it was them who called me over to show them everything I see damaged by accident), here’s what is in my opinion a fraud move and total negligence:

The oxygen sensors were damaged/ripped off by the truck tire. Not only did Caliber Collision Riverside not replace the oxygen sensor wires that were ripped apart at connectors (just reconnected them, not sure if the connector locking mechanism still even works), but they skipped to replace the protective housing for the connectors and merely zip-tied them in flimsy manner to a remaining bolt with a SINGLE zip tie!!! Not two or three zip-ties, but ONE!! I could have done better on side of road at accident location and continued driving. Left unprotected, this stuff is asking to get ripped off and damaged again by any debris traveling under the car that can latch onto the wire, on an engine critical part!

One of many damaged parts not replaced by Caliber Collision:

Here’s a list of existing concerns I sent to Mercury Insurance to evaluate at Century Collision, after Caliber Collision failed me.

• Hood not touched
• Bumper not painted
• Headlights still pointing down with light only visible ~20-30 feet in front of car, rendering safe driving speed on non-lighted road/freeway at max 35-40 mph. The headlight beams also shake on Freeway bumps now. Looked up issue online on the BMW forums- there’s ‘plastic adjusters’ in the headlights that might have snapped from impact, other apparent issue/option is the headlight leveling adjuster mechanism by the wheel assembly is not properly assembled and/or damaged.
• Fog light covers missing
• Fog light fogged up with condensation/moisture (is this an OEM part?)
• Undercarriage panels miss-aligned in front end, driver’s side ( I can’t see further deeper in under car without lifting up vehicle)
• Undercarriage panel loose at one location/not attached under driver door, behind driver’s front wheel
• Radiator still dislodged/offset from original position, as visibly noted by the offset on driver side radiator brackets on top of core support.
• Concerns of leaking AC system/condenser (since it sits in front of radiator, behind aux fan) Yesterday, for first time in 7 years of ownership, I had to re-fill R134 refrigerant due to AC blowing warm, used to be ~40*F output at max cold setting (I have video of a temp test I performed a while ago). Note that the passenger side will start blowing warmer air than driver’s side as AC system loses pressure, by so that’s an indicator. I refilled it to just above ‘acceptable’ pressure, so let’s keep an eye on that, and easiest way to check is discrepancy between Driver’s side and Passenger side as pressure is lost, unless tested with proper AC tools and pressure loss is noted.
• Anything else that comes up during your inspection. I also do have detailed video of most of the car’s front end with undercarriage panels removed, right before accident, because I spent 14 days repairing the car and preparing it for the transcontinental road trip, and filmed/photographer everything in order to post my progress on the enthusiast forums and personal reference.

Aside from list above, upon removing undercarriage panels at Century Collision for further inspection on Tuesday with Insurance agent on spot— not all undercarriage protection panels that were damaged were replaced, new panels hanging lose/not attached properly, bolts and plastic fastening clips missing/forgotten, the Oxygen sensors were zip-tied, as shown in image above, brake-air duct assembly that was mangled/bent was straightened slightly with pliers and left damaged, the attachment brackets for undercarriage panels that were bent were also left un-touched in existing damaged condition.

I never raised my voice with Caliber Collision, maybe this was a mistake, but it appears they mistook the calmness in my voice for the ‘wind noise’ a sledge hammer makes before impacting at full force.

Update July 19th, 2014
The car is still at ‘new’ body shop – Century Collision. Haven’t called them on car update last couple days.
The insurance agent did send me a copy of the new repair bill at new shop and it is about equal in cost to previous body shop, provided most exterior parts were purchased by previous shop, it shows how much they skipped out on.

But on the major part issues- they are replacing the AC condenser that sits in front of radiator. It started leaking from accident.

This week I was busy with a “emergency project” my old employer called me about once they found out I am still here in good old USA, AND talking to attorneys and getting (expensive) advise on how to maneuver the legal roadway to make sure I send Caliber Collision back to stone-age & to ensure that I don’t waste good money to chase bad money.

Frustration is still in the air. I’ve lost over a month of time, with no real place to stay at, in limbo. Summer is not exactly waiting for me either. Out of pocket expenses (towing, deductibles, etc) associated with this crap are adding up too. One of most upsetting facts is that my sister who was traveling with me initially, won’t be able to come along, as she’s going back to Australia. + Missed strawberry season in Europe + missed mid-summer eve (equally big to X-mas in Europe). Frustrations go on…

Update July 29th, 2014
After Caliber Collision blew the job completely, I had the car towed to Century Collision in Orange, CA.
Century Collision in Orange, CA has had the car for 3 weeks and completely blown the job.. again.

When I dropped off the car, Caesar- the owner, expressed confidence in repairing the vehicle and confidence in painting the vehicle. I met with him a total of 3 times before releasing the car for repairs, each time I expressed request to get the actual paint used on the car which is Hot Rod Flatz by TCP Global in San Diego. He said he has done many flat black jobs and not to worry about it, that he knows what paint that is.. bla bla bla. Pretty much didn’t want to hear about it, that type of arrogance. The bumper and hood has now been painted TWICE, because they can not match the paint. Now they are going for a 3rd coat/layer.

At Century Collision, Caesar, me and the Insurance Inspector/Estimator went over parts and repairs neglected by Caliber Collision, Riverside. Century has replaced some of the written up issues (AC Condenser, one undercarriage tray), the damaged brake air ducts are still left on. The radiator is still unseated/dislodged. Radiator should have logically been adjusted when repairing AC condenser.
Rest of the parts are still off or missing.. car is obviously disassembled.

Here’s what it looks like, at Century Collision:

Damaged air still on car:

I told Century Collision to freeze the job, that I am pulling the car out and going to yet another body shop, but first the Mercury estimator/inspector is coming out again.
I have not yet figured out where I will take it. I rather just do it all myself. At this point in time I have serious trust issues and a whole lot of time wasted. Patience is about to end.

Accident happened at 6/14 and its now almost August and very little progress has been made.
I’m raising hell on all ends. In short, everyone is pointing fingers, insurance pointing toward body shops, and they are deflecting all they can.
I am completely exhausted dealing with this.

Update August 1st, 2014
Mercury has now assigned an ‘lead inspector’ to go look at the car every day, until completion at Century Collision.
Mercury is playing the ‘non Mercury recommended body shop’ card, to cover liability, and the inspector is likely there to make sure Mercury has their liability covered.
The inspector is a knowledgeable guy though, and good to have 3rd party to keep track of issues, taking photos and date-stamping everything. He deals with lawsuits apparently.

Century Collision shop has not ordered the paint from TCP Global, even though requested by me numerous times, from day one and now by Mercury inspector. Today the inspector went by and Century Collision had no answer to him why they have not ordered the paint from the source requested. The car is just sitting there and collecting dust with no end date of repairs in sight.

Century Collision, appearing as a reputable shop with more than 30 cars on location, is run with such neglect that it is hard to comprehend how they are still in business.

The inspector advised that if I pull the car from there, non-completed out, they might charge storage fees and administrative fees and keep the repair $$$$ disbursement.

I am not sure what is wrong with people these days. I have lost faith in humanity. I’m getting the Bureau of Automotive Repairs involved as well, to get more documentation and leverage.

Just got call from ‘Lead Inspector’ who’s stating that Caliber Collision stated to the inspector that “Customer knew of everything they have not completed and was OK with it”…..BS.

Update August 8th, 2014

The current shop Century Collision has been fiddling with the paint for last 5 weeks, trying to get it right. It appears they have finally gotten the paint fairly close.. I’m awaiting evaluation on this once they have the car in clear and dusted off. I’ll see how it is, but I was about to walk out and just take the car unfinished and the losses (no paint, just time wasted), when they finally appear to have got it right. I still don’t know why they just didn’t use the paint I had before- Hot Rod Flatz, but insisted mixing their own? Would been a lot easier excuses for them had they used the paint I told them to.. but I have no more energy to deal with this right now; had I known this will be such an nightmare, I would have drastically changed plans right after accident, maybe just buttoned up the car and kept driving to NYC.

I’ll just re-paint the entire car soon enough, again. It’s the story of my life and I accept it.
One day I will buy one of those 3000 mile 2003 M5’s on AutoTrader and oykk the interior out and almost all parts and replace all the worn parts on my machine and then on top paint it flawlessly, I don’t care it if weeks of prep work.. then for couple of days it will be perfect.

Now I have to figure out how to go about the trip the best, since I lost two months of time dicking around with the car and insurance companies. Been a frustrating experience to say the least.
Car won’t be in Europe until fall, no matter how I look at it. Blahh.

Update Late August, 2014

Guess what’s back?! … now I just got to figure out the trip from scratch again, because I canceled everything scheduled 2 months ago when mis-hap happened.

But the issues keep on coming…
Mercury Insurance.. the insurance company, has been sending ‘high level’ inspectors out every day to the body shop, and giving me update/call daily on the situation. Likely this is to cover themselves for lawsuits, which they are VERY good at covering for, but it helped with getting the car done. They’re definitely working it after some whipping.

The body shop…

• They didn’t adjust the radiator support after telling them REPEATEDLY too many times to count, but re-funded me the $$$ for that instead.
• The parking sensors were not working once I got the car; fixed myself.
• The parking sensor wires are hanging visible behind the lower grille/mesh…not tucked in where they supposed to be, once I remove bumper, I’ll fix that.
• The headlights were 20 feet up in the air at 100 feet distance… at least they are new and not pointing down/broken; fixed/adjusted myself.
• As they replaced headlights, they threw away the old headlights & body parts before I had a chance to even pick up the car, by so throwing away the White Angel Eye bulbs. Just ordered new ones.
• Car’s been painted 3x or 4x (didn’t even bother to ask how many times), but it’s nowhere perfect or good enough, although tolerable for now until end of winter. I’m going to respray whole car so it’s consistent later.
• Hood emblem is missing, but the shop is working on that and it’ll paint it black.
• The AC on passenger side is blowing warm; a refrigerant pressure issue, but they refused to top it off, due to liability because they said it’s according to spec now. So I’ll just do that on my own.
• They said they added 1/8 ounce of PAG oil in new condenser (rest of PAG is in rest of system), we’ll see how that works out. Seems awfully little.

Some $K later, couple months and now I got to figure out how to get to Europe, again.

Turns out the DeLorean Time Machine likes to run out of juice, just like in the movies.. and the M5 got what DeLorean needs: 1.21 Gigawatts.

Been watching too much Gone in 60 Seconds and Fast & Furious #59.

I left “in time” and went to Urth Cafe to check the new photos and get coffee, then realized I need more smoke and went back to the LA River. There was bunch of LAPD cars there and asked me if I was the one causing the unrest. I told them “I just got there, no idea.” That is when they called me out on bullshit because on top of the river bank there was a Hollywood film crew filming something (this is one of most filmed locations in the world) and they had turned the cameras toward me when the water and tires were hit, and got me on film and showed the police when police showed up. Only in LA.

Did a long overdue photo shoot of M5 E39 in the shadows.

I realized putting this post together that I took no decent pictures of the M5 in 2013, just a everyday work-horse.

Here’s how to install a Valentine 1 in your car.

New Paint Job: Hot Rod Flatz

This is not a step-by-step DIY. There are a lot of procedures excluded, this shows the general work-flow.
M5Board.com is your friend for torque specs and proper procedures. The bushing press tool rented from Autozone was too small for the Thrust-arms and Control-arms… do not what we did. It is dangerous, painful and just plain sucks.

Had to take the clutch out back in 2011, because rear main seal leaking. Made a video on how to do it, because back then YouTube was quite empty. Fixed the rear main seal, repair is at 110,000 miles.
Dinan clutch is from 38,000 miles and the Dinan clutch is still in the car at 178,000 miles.

Video: M5 E39 Rear Main Seal Repair

Writeup: M5 E39 DIY Rear Main Seal

Here the core of the Flux Capacitor revealed.

Check out the glowing pins in center of Flux Capacitor due to the extreme heat produced of the burst of up to 1.21 Gigawatts of power when the drive is engaged through the Getrag 6-speed transmission to the rear wheels.
Normally glowing occurs only above 88 miles per hour.

Note also that this is exactly the same thing that Hans Solo & R2D2 has to fix on the Millennium Falcon when their warp-drive fails.
(This is the clutch pressure plate if you don’t speak in BTF or R2D2 languages)

Close-up of rear main seal area. Note the oil happened to be PERFECTLY level with the top of the oil pan. This was by chance, but the oil was extra high up since the car has the front tilted upward with the front wheels in the air. You can see the reflection of the crank-shaft in the oil.

Putting on the gasket for the rear main seal. The bottom has no gasket since the oil pan steel gasket isolates it there. Just make sure to put some oil on the finger and coat the oil pan gasket lightly so it’s not dry when installing new rear main seal.

Appropriate torque is being used to tighten the flywheel. The torque specs can be found on Vantaam5’s DIY:
http://www.m5board.com/vbulletin/e39-m5-e52-z8-discussion/150054-clutch-change-diy-pics.htm

BMW special tools to tighten the self adjusting clutch (springs).
Since I have no vocab available for these tools I will call the circular tool “Spring-tool” and the clamp-type looking one “Pressure-tool”.

Shown is a close-up of BMW/Dinan self adjusting clutch and clutch pressure plate.
Note the 3 springs on the pressure plate. If these springs are not re-tightened during re-install of a used clutch, chances are the clutch will slip once driven. The tools illustrated above will be used for this purpose. To my best knowledge this is also ought to be done on a new clutch to prevent any chance of slipping.

Also note that the clutch-centering tool is not inserted as it ought to be. We removed it so we could get more pics, and forgot to put it in, when taking the 2nd set of pics. (Yes we installed and removed the pressure plate 3x so we could get proper pics).

Pic: Swinging by TruSpeed Motorcars in Newport Beach and BMW dealer and to pick up more parts, screws and bolts. Best of my knowledge is to get replace all the bolts and screws that you removed, including the throw out bearing (clutch release bearing). So did I at least. When the M5 needs attention; unless I’m under my M5 in my driveway, it is on one of these lifts.

Run to the top of the mountain at sunrise, to test if clutch is slipping. No slip in the clutch after it was warmed up @ WOT in 2nd, 3rd, 4th and 5th.
Job well done.

2020 Update on Clutch

Still running the same clutch on the car almost 10 years after the Rear Main Seal repair. The Rear Main Seal is still not leaking. Car got Dinan clutch and flywheel at 38,000 miles, the Rear Main Seal was repaired at 110,000 miles, now the car has 180,000 miles and the clutch still grips great. Considering the beating the car and clutch has gotten, my opinion is that people who complain their clutch goes out between 5000 and 20,000km, simply do not know how to clutch the M5.

Got onto a private airfield and tested how hot I can get the brakes.

YouTube deleted the audio. Will need to put video on my own server, or something.

Took the M5 E39 to the El Mirage Dry Lake Bed to do a student film, turns out the ‘victim subject’ in the student film is a professional automotive sports photographer. I realized that Nate Napierala photographs better than me and I do not have to explain anything, if anything listen to him, and got behind the wheel and started drifting. The photoshoot was so smooth, because with my trained eye for photography, I understand what angle Nate Napierala was looking for and we just nodded and went at it, I drifted and he photographed.

” If I don’t crash it in first month, I probably keep it for a very long time.”